


On Your Team

by Sable512



Category: College AU - Fandom, Pokemon GO, Voltron: Legendary Defender, keithxlance - Fandom, klance - Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-26 15:14:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9908312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sable512/pseuds/Sable512
Summary: After the release of the hit game Pokémon GO, Lance goes to battle with Keith for control of the sole gym on campus. Its an all out war between the two strangers and the whole school gets wrapped up in the drama, Blue vs Red. The gym is constantly changing between team mystic and team valor and its become personal for the two boys. One day Lance puts up an especially powerful Lapras named 'too easy'; a very obvious taunt at his rival, and suddenly the two strangers find themselves face to face with each other and something more than rivalry blossoms.





	1. The sparks of Rivalry

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! So this is my first fic in a long time and im not sure how well written its gonna be so i hope you enjoy it!

Lance was over the moon ecstatic when he heard about Pokemon GO's release and almost instantly downloaded it, which of course came along with him dragging his best friend, and roommate out to pokehunt with him every night despite his resistance. Eventually he managed to convince Hunk to download the game himself so they could start hunting together, which much to Hunks displeasure meant that Lance roped him into sneaking out past lights out to hunt in off limits places like the teacher lounges and chem labs. Soon enough Lance discovered a gym located right in the middle of campus next to a large sign with the name "Garrison" carved into it; the name of their school. 

"Woooah, Hunk, buddy, check it out! Its a gym! who would've thought we'd have one on campus yeah?" Lance excitedly tapped on the gym and immediately started the process of choosing his team as he spoke to his roommate

"Yeah, uh-huh, its great Lance, but don't you think we should get back to the dorms? It's really getting late and we both have classes at 8 tomorrow morning and you know how you get in the morning." He was fidgeting in his place beside Lance, glancing around with a paranoid look but clicked the gym and started the same process as Lance nonetheless. "Also I think I'm gonna go for Instinct, I think I like the look of Zapdos over Moltres and Articuno."

Lance scoffed and chose his own team, team Mystic, before speaking, "I don't know what your talking about I'm a perfect angel in the morning, how couldn't I be with a face this handsome?" He gave Hunk one of his sly grins before announcing his own team out loud, "And dude how the heck could you go with Instinct?! Articuno is obviously the best out of the trio! I mean she's fierce and strong and she's even got the word one in her name! She's literally number one! Compared to that Zapdos is just a low rate secondary choice. Although I suppose its better than those Valor jerks. Ugh thinking their so cool with their weird fire bird and stupid name, I just don't get ho-" 

Hunk cut him off, "Lance calm down bud, your rambling again and your getting pretty loud. Do you remember how much trouble we were in last time we got caught? Do you really wanna listen to the Dean lecture us again?" Hunk was looking around wildly, afraid that the afore mentioned Dean would just pop up out of no where and start yelling at them again. The mere thought of Iverson finding them sent shivers down both their spines.

Lance visibly gulped before hunching over his phone with a new urgency. "Alright alright, just lemme take this gym real quick and we can go back to our room and get some sleep." As he's talking to Hunk he starts up the gym battle and easily defeats it, putting one of his higher level pokemon up, although even his strongest is pretty weak considering his character - which he's given the username 'IceIceBaby' -is only level 7. He does a quick prestige and puts his favorite pokemon, a vaporeon named blue, up and calls it a night, quietly sneaking back to the dorms with Hunk at his side. 

Once their safely tucked back into their room and hidden safely under their own blankets in the dark, Lance lets out a small sigh and rolls over facing away from his friends bed. He cant seem to sleep despite knowing he has an early class and instead turns to his thoughts. _The first day of the semester is tomorrow... I wonder if I'll have any cute girls in my classes._ He pauses in his train of thought as he remembers his instructor for astronomy last year, Shiro. Shiro had been one fine male specimen and it was the final shove that Lance needed to finally realize his bisexuality. Sure he'd always thought that some of the customers he got when he used to work at the campus coffee shop were kinda cute but he always pushed it to the back of his mind, telling himself that he was even more attractive than them and that he only used them as a comparison for his greatness despite Hunk repeatedly trying to tell him otherwise. He sighs again and shifts once more so he's lying on his back, staring up at his blank ceiling. _I should get some of the glow in the dark stars that stick to the ceiling like back at home.._ He lets out yet another sigh as he drapes his arm over his eyes and listens to the soft sound of Hunks breathing. Slowly, without even realizing it, he gently falls asleep, forgetting to set an alarm for the next morning.

 

Lance is being roughly shaken awake and without opening his eyes he knows it's Hunk, and he swats at him trying to will himself back to sleep while grumbling at him sleepily, "Not yet ya big lug, my alarm hasn't even gone off yet, I still have time to sleep." His eyebrows crease together as his roommate starts talking in a loud panicked voice right next to his ear. "No Lance you don't have time to sleep! its 7:43, we have like less than 20 minutes to get ready and get to our classes!" 

Now **that** got his attention, and he was suddenly a lot more awake than before, instantly shooting straight up out of bed, narrowly missing a head on collision with Hunks forehead and ran to the bathroom with some random clothes he quickly grabbed off the floor while yelling back at Hunk wildly. "Dude what the crow!? Didn't we like, have alarms set?!" He slams the door shut and instantly starts ripping at his pajamas while simultaneously trying to wash his toned tan face as he listens to Hunks response from the main room. "Yeah I thought we did too, but we must've forgotten to set them because _someone_ had to go out pokehunting till two am and dragged me along!"

To a normal person those words could've stung a bit, but Lance knew his friend was just freaking out and meant no harm with his words, which let Lance take it in stride. He chose to ignore the fact that it was kinda his fault in favor of brushing his teeth since he was now finally dressed. He finished up quickly and darted back out into the room in enough time to see Hunk on his way out the door.

"Hey don't forget to text me about lunch! We're gonna go out hunting again right?" Lance quickly yells to the retreating figure as he grabs his favorite olive green hoodie and his bag, putting both on before shoving his phone in his pocket. A muffled 'yuh-huh' and a hasty back handed wave was the only response he received before the door shut. Lance checked the time, and upon seeing that it was 7:52, decided that he could take a moment to rush back to the bathroom,and quickly tame his bed head of short cinnamon colored hair, before sprinting to his first class, just hardly making it on time, luckily managing to snag a seat near the back right next to the large windows.

Lances classes drag on agonizingly slow for the first half of the day and he finds himself drained of energy despite not having really done anything due to it being the first day. Finally, after what feels like forever to Lance, its lunch time, and he feels the tell tale vibration of his phone telling him he has a message. Excited to get some good food and go hunting he opens the message and instantly starts typing back

H: Meet me by the churro stand?

L: Normally I'd shoot for tacos, but _churro_ good guy so ill be there in a tick

H: Lance I swear to god your puns are going to get you killed one day

He let out a chuckle at Hunks words. He could practically feel him groaning and face palming at Lances joke which just made it all the more better. Lance was definitely one to please, and while his sense of humor and personality definitely wasn't for everyone, that still didn't stop him from being a very loud and outgoing, social person. Its just who he is and he couldn't help it, he just had so much trouble staying quiet, he hated silence, and he felt that talking just helped to calm him down, even if he did end up rambling for hours on end to Hunk or even Pidge, his tiny tech genius of a friend. As he walks he hums a quiet tune from his childhood while thinking about Pidge. _I wonder how they're doing. Last Hunk or I heard from them they were invested in some sort of research neither of us really understood. I wonder if he's ok? I mean it's not like we've actively texted or anything but I cant help worrying about them._ Lance is abruptly pulled out of his thoughts by the smell of churros, savory and somehow a little sweet. He follows his nose and finally ends up next to Hunk who has two churros in hand, one of which he passes to Lance.

He takes it gratefully with one hand, and with the other, whips out his phone and starts up pokemon go. "Ready to find some pokemon Hunk?" The larger man just stares down at him and lets out a sigh before smiling, showing his own screen to Lance with a small smile, displaying his character on the map of the campus. "Already caught a magicrap and a vulpix." Lance grabs onto Hunks arm, bringing the screen closer. "WHAT?! Dude where did you find a vulpix! I still need one of those!" His eyes are wide and he's now frantically looking at his phone and taking small steps away from his friend, causing him to laugh. "Dude calm down it should still be around I just caught it a minu-" The rest of his sentence is drowned out by the victory cheer Lance gives off, signaling that he's found the pokemon he was after, shortly followed by a disappointed and dramatically elongated groan. "Huuuuunk, it ran away from meeeeee." With the last drawn out word, he half collapses against hunks arm, pouting like a little kid, but he doesn't care, he really wanted that vulpix. He quickly straightens himself out however and decides that water types are better than fire types anyway, and announces as much to Hunk, which earns him a loving eye roll. He smiles at his best friend who is now preoccupied with his game once again, before he enters his owned pokemon tab to check on his pokemon who are on the gym. Except they're not on the gym. He narrows his eyes as he closes out of that tab and instead looks towards the quad on his map, which is where the gym was oh so conveniently located. 

Lance can tell from his phones maps perspective that the gym is no longer the ocean blue of team mystic but is instead a crimson red signifying team valor. He lets out a hiss like sound at the revelation and instantly starts for the gym, Hunks words of confusion lost to the background of Lances sudden competitiveness. As he nears the gym ad clicks on it, he can finally see that is been prestiged once just as when he had taken it, except this time there was a growlithe and a vulpix up, both from the user 'manicpanic'. 

"pfft, some username that is, what was this kid a wannabe goth or something?" He smirks at the name but that smirk instantly vanishes when he sees the nicknames mr goth wannabe bestowed upon his posted pokemon. The growlithes name read as 'Mystic' and the vulpix's as 'sucks'. He instantly felt the hot flames of rivalry and ego swell up in the pit of his stomach as his eyes narrowed at his screen.

"Oh it is on."


	2. Blue vs Red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So I have no clue how long this is gonna end up being, maybe just a couple of chapters, who really knows, but I hope you enjoy the ride anyway! Also I'm most likely gonna end up writing some chapters in Keiths perspective eventually just a heads up

The next day Lance was still a bit ticked about what that team valor bandit had done, but after clearing the gym out again whilst yelling obscenities about his new rival, he felt a bit better and a whole lot more smug. He of course nicknamed his two pokemon on the gym to spell out 'best you can do?' just to one up the guy. But now as he sat in his astronomy2 class on pokemon go with an incense burning, catching pokemon to level up instead of paying attention, he noticed the blue of the gym suddenly start sparking, signifying someone was battling the gym. Without realizing what he was doing he quickly stood up and shouted at his screen, "WHAT?!". It wasn't until he felt all the eyes of his classmates and his instructor, who just happened to be Shiro again, that he came to his senses and realized what he just did.

Shiro of course spoke up, "Uhhh Lance? You ok? Do you need to be excused?" He was looking at Lance questioningly and Lance could see he was genuinely worried about his student.

"Uhhhmm no, nope, I'm fine, just remembered I forgot my lunch card was all, I'm fine heheh.." He trailed off and rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly, still standing, without meeting Shiros eye. From his peripheral he could see Shiro shrug a little and turn back to the board, giving Lance his queue to sit back down, but before his butt had even hit the chair Shiro spoke up once more;

"I'll let you out 10 minutes early so you can go get it. Lunch is an important meal after all." He turned his upper half around just enough to smile up at Lance, a carefree and sympathetic smile that had Lance staring in awe at how perfectly beautiful it was. But as quick as the smile had been delivered, he was met once again with Shiros back. Shiro was a pretty muscular guy, his shirts were all form fitting which just extenuated that detail, and he had a scar across his face that was a light pink. But the most note worthy features Shiro had to offer was his prosthetic arm and strange patch of white hair. No one really knew what caused the white hair since he was still in his early thirties, but his prosthetic was caused by a car accident, a well known story around campus. He was much different from Lance who was a tall lanky college student with chocolate skin and cinnamon hair and bright blue eyes, but he couldn't help but compare himself to Shiro, even though that's like comparing an apple to a pineapple, both are good and tasty, but their differences are too vast to fairly compare. As his instructor started delving into black holes, Lances' attention was once again on his phone and he slowly felt his pride and flare of rivalry come back. Whoever this manicpanic guy was, he was going down, and that was a fact. 

A little over an hour later, he was released from his astronomy class 10 minutes early as promised, but he didn't go back to the dorms, the story about his card was fake, it was actually in his back pocket. Instead he headed straight for the quad, hell bent on taking back his gym. He was so focused on his goal he didn't see the small person in a green hoodie until he almost ran into them. He mumbled out a small apology and moved to keep going, but before he got very far, the small person spoke up and Lance froze in place.

"First time I've seen you this semester and you try to completely bypass me Lance? Now either you completely forgot about one of your best friends, which is unlikely, or your caught up in some sort of one sided rivalry again, and frankly my moneys on the latter." Lance turned around instantly and looked at the small person again. It was Pidge, his techy genius friend he hadn't seen or spoken to since last semester. They were small with short brown hair that stuck out all over the place, with an oversized hoodie on and their trusty circle shaped glasses

"Pidge! Hey man its great to see ya again! How've you be- wait. What makes you think its a one sided rivalry! This guys totally in on it too!" He huffs at them and crosses his arms feigning hurt, but they just chuckle at him and shake their head.

"Lance Lance Lance. When will you ever learn? What's it over this time anyway? This guy buy the last taco from the taco cart or something and you turned it into a petty rivalry?" Pidge was smart observant and calculative, they probably assumed it was over food since lance was headed towards the quad, conveniently around lunch time.

"No! There's only one gym on the entire campus and I took it fair and square and then this team _valor_ guy just comes in and takes it from me and rubs it in my face by saying mystic sucks! If anything then _he_ started it!" Lances voice had slowly gotten louder and gone up in pitch as he'd spoken but he didn't care, this was ridiculous and he had to have his gym back! He turned around and started to walk towards the quad again but pidge followed him easily and kept talking.

"Are you sure you're not just making things up as an excuse to compete against a complete stranger? It wouldn't be the first time. Remember that time you started a fight with someone 3 times your size?" Pidge looked at him with an amused look on his face like the memory brought them joy.

"That was **one time** Pidge! And I was drunk it doesn't count!" His tone was defensive and Pidge just chuckled at him again with an "Ok, sure Lance, keep telling yourself that." Then, finally Lance had the Garrison sign in sight and started running for it, his will to crush team valor renewed.

"You'll see Pidge, this ones real! He's totally taunting me and I wont stand for it! I will keep claiming this gym for team mystic because team valor is full of jerk scum who don't deserve to have control of a gym!" His yelling had attracted the attention of a lot of other students in the quad who looked on with amused looks, the rumors about the gym rivalry had already started spreading, but Lance didn't notice as he reached the gym and hastily clicked on it, seeing three pokemon this time, all from manicpanic once again. He immediately checked their names as Pidge caught up to him slightly out of breath.

"Dude you're like twice as tall as me and your legs are _long_ , I cant keep up when you sprint like that!" But Lance wasn't paying attention to what they were saying, instead his eyes were glued to his screen, reading the names over again. Pidge took notice apparently because they leaned in close to Lance to read it with him. "Oh wow. I guess you weren't kidding Lance, this time the other persons actually in on the stupid rivalry. Congrats you have a real rival for once." They pat his back and turn away in favor of looking for food leaving Lance to stare at his screen. The three pokemon that were there were a growlithe and vulpix again, and then a ponyta, all named 'come at me' respectively. Finally Lance snapped out of his trance and started the battle. Luckily this person seemed to have a preference for fire types whereas Lance had a preference for water types, so within five minutes he had taken the gym down once again and spent another 20 minutes prestiging until he had four pokemon up, all water types of course. His lowest tier was a lapras he named 'lets see', his next was a poliwhirl named 'you try', then was his trusty vaporeon which he changed its name from blue, to 'to beat', and finally on his top tier was his strongest pokemon. It was a gyarados he named 'This'. He was so unbelievably happy in this moment for spending all night out pokehunting with incense and lure modules, because it meant that now his character was level 14, whereas his rivals was only 9, and he now had stronger pokemon. _I'd like to see mr goth beat_ this _team I've set up. He'll have to train day and night to be able to beat it. Especially with his puny fire types._ Lance nodded, satisfied and left the sign in favor of food, searching for Pidge in the process. 

What he didn't know however, was that everyone who was watching instantly started spreading the rumors even further, of the boy who favored water types and the boy who favored fire types, and their rivalry for the sole campus gym. He also was unaware that Keith, the person behind the name manicpanic, just got out of class and became aware that his gym was taken within the two hours he was in his lecture hall, and was now out to crush Lance and his team.

 

Two days later Lance was having the time of his life, sitting in his dorm room with Hunk and Pidge, bragging about how he still had control of the gym. "I swear guys, he has to have given up by now! why wouldn't he, I mean my gym is so powerful I doubt he'd ever be able to defeat it!" He kept rambling on and on about it but Hunk and Pidge were tuning him out, so he knew it was kind of a wasted effort, but he didn't know what else to do if he didn't talk. He just found comfort in being able to talk about what was on his mind even if his friends didn't always appreciate it. Finally he stopped bragging about it and quieted down to watch whatever movie the two had put on as they chatted together idly about whatever robotic machine thing they were working on. Lance didn't understand any of it so he mostly tuned them out in favor of the tv, but before long that bored him since it was some sort of documentary on cryptids and weird legends like mothman and bigfoot. 

He instead turned to his phone and opened up pokemon go to bask in his success once again. Lance hummed along to the familiar tune as the app opened up, and checked on his pokemon since he couldn't see the gym from the dorms. They were all still fine and full of health so he closed it out with a familiar feeling of joy and lit an incense. After his incense had burned out, he'd managed to catch a fe eevees, a pinsir, and a couple other low rank pokemon, and decided to evolve one of the eevees into another vaporeon since he had enough candy to do so. Lance hummed to himself as he opened up his pokemon tab but instantly choked on his own spit and started coughing as he stared at his screen. He felt his friends eyes on him but didn't look up to meet their gaze, instead he stayed completely still and silent after he finished hacking up a lung. A rarity for him, and he could tell it made his friends wary and worried as Hunk hesitantly spoke up

"Uhh, hey Lance? You ok?" Lance could tell he looked worried, and without looking at him or responding, he stood up, his phone clutched in his hand by his side. "Woah Lance what's gotten into you man?" This time Lance let out a deep breath and responded to his friend, finally meeting both of their anxious gazes.

"Someone beat my gym. And I'm willing to bet its mr goth." As he spoke he got a little mad but mostly he felt his ego and pride swell to the size of an air balloon and he started getting ready to leave, jacket, shoes, keys, as he spoke. "I cant believe it! There's no way he beat my gym! I spent forever leveling those guys up and there's no way his stupid fire types just defeated all that hard work within two days! There's just no way!" At the end of his little speech he was ready to go and headed for the door as Pidge spoke up.

"Wait, Lance, where are you going?" They sounded flustered and a little concerned almost. But Lances' mind was so preoccupied with beating this guy and taking back his gym he didn't really pay much attention to it. Instead he opened the door, and as he closed it he answered them; "To take my gym back!" And then he was gone, rushing out of the dorms and sprinting across campus, cutting through the grass to get to the gym, ignoring the vibrating of his phone when a pokemon would pop up, and he didn't stop until he reavhed the quad. 

There was a large crowd around the sign, but they weren't doing anything, rather they were just standing there, looking around as if searching for something. Lance approached the crowd, just wanting to take the gym back, but as he neared and people spotted him, everyone turned their attention to him. His steps faltered just slightly. _o-kay, this is kinda creepy, whys everyone staring at me? I just wanna take back my gym!_ He shakes his head and continues towards the crowd ignoring their stares, and when he reaches the edge, they part for him like something out of a movie. Lance cant help but think this is really weird but he keeps going, tapping on the gym now that he's close enough to do so. He's shocked to only see one pokemon on the gym, a pretty high leveled arcanine named 'lets go'. 

He's so shocked he doesn't really register that there's someone leaning against the sign until they push themselves off and take a couple steps towards Lance. When he finally looks up to see whos in front of him he's a little surprised to see a handsome face that he recognizes as someone from his engineering class. He doesn't have time to remember his name because he's too focused on the mullet the guy is sporting. He's clad in black skinny jeans and tee, with a red cropped jacket over it all, and dark grey eyes. He goes to speak, but Lance beats him to it.

"Dude who has a mullet these days? It's like the 21st century, and your still stuck in the 80's?" The guy just blinks at him a bit dumbfounded, Lance can tell he wasn't expecting that, but his guard is back up almost immediately and he starts talking to Lance, ignoring his question.

"I'm assuming you're the team mystic person who keeps taking this gym? I'm Keith Kogane, and I'm here to tell you that this gym belongs to valor." He smirks a bit when he sees Lance getting worked up and crosses his arms. "And if you don't like it then I have a proposition. A competition really. Whoever has had control of this gym for the most consecutive days by the time midterms are over, gets to keep it, and the other will leave it alone. Do we have a deal...?" He holds his hand out and is obviously waiting for Lances hand and name, so he wipes the scowl off his face and replaces it with a smirk mirroring Keiths. 

He takes Keiths hand in his own and shakes it once, "Lance. And you have yourself a deal mullet-boy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooooh sparks of rivalry and confident Keith? Don't worry he was just acting tough he's really a soft squishy cinnamon roll, but anyway I'm gonna be trying to update at least once a week, I don't remember if I said that last chapter, but stay tuned for the next one! And as always, any suggestions or corrections are welcome


	3. The New Norm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter in which Lance has issues and apparently Keith might too  
> Idfk I'm too tired to think rationally

It was the day after Lances' newly named rival - Keith - has officially declared war and Lance was seriously contemplating skipping all his classes for the day in favor of pokehunting and leveling up his pokemon. But to his dismay Hunk wasn't having any of it that morning and practically dragged Lance to his astrophysics class before heading for his own, with a back call of "You better stay in class or I'm not making dinner tonight." _It's unfair really, I mean this is war! How could Hunk prioritize classes over something this important!_

Lance let out a sigh as he headed for his next class on auto pilot, his eyes glued to his phone screen, catching any and every pokemon to pop up on his screen, taking special care with the occasional water types he would find. It wasn't until he reached his next classroom and stepped inside did he remember that it was engineering. His head snapped up on reflex, remembering that Keith shared this class with him. He spotted him almost right away, sitting near the front with his head resting on his fist as he appeared to be writing something on a piece of paper. Lance exercised no hesitation in walking up to the guy and slamming his hands down on the desk, drawing the attention of a few other students, but mullet man didn't look up at him.

Soon enough, Lance's already nearly non-existent patience ran out and he snapped at the guy; "What your just gonna ignore me now? Oh no, no, that's perfectly fine, I mean rivals don't usually talk in war anyway now do they? Except for in situations where, oh, I don't know, the two parties _share a class!?_ Lance had no intentions of being mean or genuinely aggressive with the guy, his competitiveness just gets the better of him sometimes and this was no acceptation. Finally after his little outburst, Keith looked up at him and had an almost innocent look on his face as he asked "I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

Lance simply gapped at him, his jaw hanging open as his brain tried to decipher if he'd made a mistake and somehow had the wrong guy, or if he was messing with him. But before his brain could even decide, Keith's innocent look turned into one of sly smugness. "Wow you actually thought you had the wrong guy there didn't you?" He scoffed and lowered his eyes back down to his paper, ignoring Lance once again.

Lance just stood there, his brain still not quite caught up with the situation, and once it was, he was totally ready to rip this guy a new one, but he didn't get the chance since his super strict, super mean engineering professor, professor Sendak, chose that moment to walk in the classroom.

"McClain! Why are you not already seated? Do I need to call professor Zarkon? or perhaps even Iverson himself?" His professor smirked coldly at Lance, sending a shiver down his spine as he straitened himself up and instantly started towards his desk in the back. Sendak had a notorious rep for calling both head master Zarkon, who was in charge of classes and all the professors, and the dean, Iverson. Both were men that you didn't want to get a lecture from and Lance was not about to sign himself up for that kind of punishment.

"No sir! Was just- having a friendly talk with my pal Keith there and lost track of time. My apologies." He chuckled nervously as he finished his accent to his seat and sat down, with Sendak still watching him, smiling this smile that Lance swears would have even the bravest of warriors weak in the knees. His professor lets out a quick harsh laugh and turned to look at Keith and the classmates surrounding him. 

"Alright, then to prevent further class disruptions and delays, starting next class you'll be seated next to Kogane." 

"WHAT?!?" In an instant both Keith and Lance were on their feet staring at their professor in utter shock before slowly glancing at each other as the reality of the situation sunk in. Professor Sendak however didn't seem phased by their outburst and instead chuckled coldly, and Lance knew in that moment that this professor was by far one of the worst he's ever had. For fucks sake he did this on purpose just to annoy and upset the two of them! Right then and there he vowed never to take engineering again so long as Sendak was the professor. Slowly Lance sat back down with a scowl on his face and couldn't help but notice Keith do the same out of the corner of his eye.

"Good. Now that that's settled, I'll have a seat open and ready for you next to Keith by next class McClain. For your sake I hope you two get along well." He smiled deviously at the two of them in turn before turning to the board to finally start the lecture. However Lance just couldn't concentrate and his leg started bouncing like crazy with a permanent scowl etched on to his face for the rest of class until the bell rang, signifying his release. He sprang up from his seat almost as soon as the bell rang and booked it for the door, wanting nothing more than to get out of there and skip his afternoon classes to pokehunt despite Hunks threat. 

Unfortunately for him he's stopped right outside the doorway in the form of someone blocking the way. And not just anyone, of course it had to be Keith. Lance's scowl was back on his face and he could physically feel his muscles pulling his features down as he spoke; "Ah c'mon, what d' _you_ want? Isn't it bad enough that I gotta sit next to you now, what could you possibly want?" His tone came out a little more aggressive than he had wanted it to, but he didn't particularly care at this point. However, to his surprise, Keith just sighed and ran his fingers through his bangs quickly as if to distract himself, and wouldn't meet Lances gaze. Lance watched his fingers glide through his hair before ripping his eyes away and glaring at him while he waited for him to speak.

"Look, I know we have this whole competition thing going on and we didn't necessarily have the best first impressions, but now that Sendak has basically stuck us in a position where we have to communicate and get along, do you think we could maybe try? To get along that is. I don't wanna call of the competition or anything but I just think this will be a whole lot easier if we just got along I guess?" After his little speech, he finally met Lances eye and he could see an almost vulnerability in them that took him a bit by surprise, but he quickly pushed that away and scowled at him once more before replying;

"Look I get what ya mean, Sendaks a giant douche canoe, but your my rival, and rivals don't get all buddy buddy with each other. I'm gonna pass this class **and** take back my gym, all without your help thank you very much." He nodded once firmly as if to solidify what he had said and went to move around the motionless Keith, who Lance noticed looked kind of shell shocked like he hadn't expected that, before he was passed him and halfway down the hall.

 

Lance did end up skipping his afternoon classes, and somehow managed not to get caught loitering around spawn spots near lecture halls, and by the time it was time for him to head back to the dorm, he had leveled his character up by 2, and had evolved a psyduck into a golduck and had leveled his lapras and vaporeon up significantly. It was about 5:30 when he got back into the dorm rooms and about 10 minutes later, Hunk came in and stopped in his tracks upon seeing Lance. He frowned and got into his 'angry mom stance' which consisted of crossed arms, all weight centered on one foot, or rather, hip, and a foot tapping. Lance swallowed the lump in his throat, and smiled at his best friend with the most innocent look he could muster up.

"Heeeey Hunk, buddy, how was your day?" He chuckled a bit self consciously as Hunks eyes narrowed.

"Laaaaaaance." He said it in a very soft tone but his voice held the bite of an angry bird protecting its nest. "What're you doing back at the dorms?" Hunks foot tapping got slightly quicker as he waited for Lance to speak.

"Whatdya mean bud? I can't come back a little early to spend time with my best friend?" He smiled at him and punched his shoulder slightly, trying to lighten the mood, but Lance could tell that Hunk was on to him.

"Yeah uh-huh, you totally came home early to spend time with me and not to hide the fact that you did something bad?" HIs voice was questioning, but not in the sense that he was asking if he was right or not, it was more of a rhetorical question that told Lance that he already knew what he had done and was daring him to deny it. Lance knew it was futile and that denying it would only spell trouble for him so he sighed and looked to the floor, turning around to walk to the couch and sit before he gave Hunk the explanation he was waiting for.

"Keith - the mullet kid? Team valor rival? Well he's in my engineering class right? And like when I remembered that, I kinda got ahead of myself and went up to his desk to try and provoke him. Well long story short, Sendak just _had_ to choose _that_ moment to walk into the classroom, and you know how Sendak is, always threatening to call Zarkon or Iverson. Welp he didn't stop at just that, after I tried to smooth it over by saying I had been having a _friendly_ conversation with my _pal_ Keith, he caught on to my bluff pretty quickly." He paused for breath and realized he was kinda rambling, but he didn't really care, he was upset and he knew Hunk would listen, mad at Lance or not. "Anyway, he basically just fucked the rest of this semester for me in that class cause you know what he did?" Hunk just raised an eyebrow at him, still in his mom pose, but at least the tapping had stopped. "He pretty much paired me and Mullet-boy up for the semester! He said it's to prevent further distractions and situations like that in the future but we all know that's actual horse shit. He did this on purpose! He could tell we don't get along! And then on my way out of class of _coooourse_ mister goody two shoes himself has to stop me from leaving and basically asked for a truce! He thinks we should try to get along and work together! What kind of bat shit insane idea is that!?" He sighs and lets his arms fall back to his sides from where they were just up in the air motioning frantically. He looks up at Hunk whos still looking at his expectantly. Lance drops his head so it dangles close to his knees with an 'ugch' noise before he starts talking in a lot more monotone voice deprived of any emotion; "So basically I got upset and skipped evening classes to pokehunt and came home early so you wouldn't suspect anything, but it very obviously backfired. Happy?" Lance looked back up at his friend with his last question and saw Hunks demeanor change instantly into one of understanding, with a soft smile on his face as he sat down next to Lance.

"Lance I get how your feeling man, but this Keith guy is actually thinking correctly in this situation don't you think? I mean if your gonna be next to each other for the rest of the semester might as well make the best of it right? Y'know, instead of making yourself miserable because your too stubborn to open up to the idea of being nice to him?" His hand was on Lances shoulder in a familiar, comforting way, and he took solace in it, but didn't give in to what he was saying. 

"Hunk, this guys my rival, I cant just start getting all close and mopey with the guy! He'd take the opportunity to keep that gym from me and win the competition!" His voice was loud and his eyebrows were knit together low over his eyes as he thought about it. He heard Hunk sigh from beside him and could see him shaking his head from his peripheral vision. 

"Lance not everyone's like that. To me it seems like he was trying to be nice and reach out to you and you shut him down pretty harshly. If I were you I'd swallow my pride and apologize to him." Lance opens his mouth to protest but Hunk cuts him off with his hand and starts talking again instead. "I know, I know, its not like you to apologize to anyone, like, ever. But I think you guys could make good friends. And who knows, maybe you'll become more than friends eh, eh?" Hunk nudges his shoulder and retreats into his room before Lance can protest, so instead he's left with his thoughts.

_I mean yeah I guess I was kinda harsh.. and Hunks usually right about these kind of things, maybe we could be friends. Then again he's supposed to be my rival, even if he's not the type to take advantage of me being his friend to win, it still isn't in my nature to befriend my enemies. Yeah I guess I could theoretically, but not many people like me with my personality and ADHD, but maybe its worth a shot?_ Lance sighs and decides not to dwell on it, favoring another pokehunt session over his own thoughts. He could never quite sort through his thoughts without speaking them out loud anyway. With yet another sigh he grabs his jacket and phone and leaves the dorm.

 

A few hours later Lance has somehow managed to level his lapras up as high as it can go, a whopping 2556 cp, and his vaporeon, which he's changed its name faithfully back to blue, is close to being full power and has a current level of 2487 cp. He also managed to evolve his staryu into a starmie, and his poliwhirl into a poliwrath, and he felt he was almost ready to challenge the gym, but wanted to grind his golduck, starmie, and poliwrath a bit more so Keith would have a harder time taking it down. _Keith._ Lance stopped walking, not quite looking at his phone, more like looking **through** it, and found himself thinking about nothing and everything, just kind of _standing there._ His eyes came in and out of focus and he felt so many emotions yet none at all, he could basically see himself standing there under a sidewalk lamp, staring blankly at his phone. He felt like he was astroplaning, projecting outside of his body and watching from a distance. Or least that's what it felt like. He stayed like that for who knows how long until his trance was broken by the sound of approaching footsteps. Lance snapped out of it and looked behind him towards the source of the sound and was mildly surprised to find Keith there, staring back at him. Neither of the said anything, instead just stared at each other. Usually Lance would've immediately filled the silence with some stupid pun, pick up line, or rant about rivalry, but instead he stayed quiet, not quite feeling any urge to speak. Luckily for him Keith didn't seem to be in the mood either, opting to shove his gloved hands into his cropped jackets pockets instead. Part of Lance vaguely wondered what was wrong, but then again what was wrong with Lance himself? 

He didn't give Keith a backwards glance as the guy walked past him, and instead turned back into himself and took deep breaths, knowing that this was just a side effect of his ADHD mixed with his anxiety. It came about whenever Lance was particularly confused about something and needed to move but just didn't have the mental will to do so. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence for Pidge or Hunk to find him at 2 am staring into nothingness, but just like his ADHD, he couldn't control or help it, it was just kinda a part of him and his personality. But now his trance had been broken by a particularly rough looking Keith who looked just as lost as Lance felt. He knew he'd get nowhere by thinking about it, so he started to head back to the dorms, his game completely forgotten in favor of the idea of a nice warm bed to fall onto when he got back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so literally my entire weekend was spent trying to finish a project I was working on and long story short, I went about 52ish hours without sleep and finished writing this like two hours before I finally crashed so if its kinda poor quality I'm sorry  
> As always suggestions, comments, and corrections are welcome, and stay tuned for the next chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> Ok wow so i was kinda feeling it but also not really. its like 2 am and im tired shhh, but anyway i know this one kinda feels rushed but i just wanted to get all the basic introductory stuffs out of the way so the like actual story can begin yknow? So i promise that the next chaper will be better and ill take my time on it and make sure its better suited to _Lance_  
>  Anyway, any and all advice and ideas are welcome and i really hope you end up liking the story! Idk how long itll be but hopefully long enough


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